In particular, the refillable bottle can be used to dispense a liquid product, for example a cosmetic skincare, makeup or perfume product, or a pharmaceutical product.
The refillable bottle comprises a body inside which a product conditioning reservoir is formed, and a device for dispensing the conditioned product mounted sealed on said body. In particular, the dispensing device may include drawing off means in the form of a manually actuated pump supplied with said conditioned product, said pump being designed to dispense the product under pressure, for example in the form of an aerosol. As a variant, the dispensing device may comprise product application means, for example in the form of a ball.
In one example application, the refillable bottles according to the invention can be used for the distribution of product samples, particularly for a product volume of between 1 and 10 ml contained in the reservoir. In particular, the samples thus distributed should enable a customer to test the product, the bottles then being qualified as tester sample bottles. As a variant, the bottles may be called “handbag bottles” in that they can be used to easily transport a small volume of product, unlike larger volume bottles that are usually heavy and cumbersome because they are more luxurious.
In these applications, for example for logistic reasons, or because it is more practical or for environmental recycling purposes, it may be desirable to be able to refill the reservoir with product from a source of said product. Indeed, it is not very practical for a user to have to use a small funnel to refill the reservoir and it is not very ecological to discard an empty bottle to replace it with a new bottle acting as a refill.
Refillable bottles are already available for sale, in which the body is fitted with a reservoir filling valve that is arranged to enable communication between a product source and said reservoir so that said reservoir can be refilled. In particular, the valve includes a communication passage between the source and the reservoir, said passage having a seating fitted with a check valve that is free to move relative to said seating between a sealed closed position and a position in which said passage is open.
In prior art, filling is done by using a source bottle comprising a distribution pump, the check valve being moved by the jet of said pump. In particular, the check valve is elastically held in the closed position and the sealed bearing contact of the jet on the check valve reversibly opens said check valve and actuates the pump to inject the source product into the reservoir through the valve.
However, this embodiment introduces sealing problems when filling, particularly because it is difficult to position the jet correctly with a sealed bearing contact on the check valve by applying sufficient force to open the check valve and actuate the pump at the same time, especially because the pump has to be actuated several times to inject a sufficient volume of product.